In the heart of the West Virginia hills, at the edge of the Little Kanawha River Basin, is Oil Creek with its several tributaries. It was first settled at the beginning of the 1800s. At the confluence of Clover Fork & Oil Creek the town of Orlando developed in the late 1800s and withered in the mid 1900s. For two hundred years a small community has loved, worked, fought dreamed and worshiped here and raised new generations to do the same. Here are some of the stories of that community.

Friday, September 08, 2006

How To Find A Lost Graveyard

John Burgett(swinging from a grapevine in the DuVall Cemetery at the right side of the photo) volunteers on Memorial Day to honor our veterans by putting flags on their graves. This year, in addition to our family cemetery in Orlando, he was asked to honor vets in a couple cemeteries that no one looks after.

The DuVall Cemetery, off Oil Creek Road, is "on the road side of the hill." He looked down the side of the hill at acres of fully forested land: no clearing, no gravestones in sight.

Then he noticed a line of trees larger than the rest, maybe old growth, certainly older growth, trees. Now, why had no one harvested those trees when they harvested the rest of this hill? A cemetery!

Once he was down with the large trees, he found a few standing, and many, many broken & buried gravestones. Polly (Godfrey) DuVall, mother of Patience (Duvall) Skinner, was one. Later we found her husband, G.T. DuVall. There were also sundry Waldos and a Simms, who had married one of Patience's sisters. We could only find a very few of the gravestones and they were hard to read.

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About Me

My mother grew up along the banks of Oil Creek. Her family has lived there since the early 1800s. They built a community in the wilderness. Before that, some of their parents had fought the Indians, the English and the French for the land. My father (the son of German immigrants to Detroit) taught me from my very earliest memory to love and respect this exciting and honored heritage.
I live in Detroit. As a kid I spent two weeks each summer in Orlando. So, while my heart might be in the right place, the rest of me is far away.
As we all share our stories, facts, thoughts, documents and photos about the Oil Creek watershed- Oil Creek, Dumpling Run, Three Lick, Posey Run, Road Run, McCauly Run, Clover Fork etc., Orlando's story is being revealed, and its more exciting than any of us knew! If you have ties to Orlando, the story will not be complete without YOUR contribution. Contact us soon!